Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Welcome to 7-Imp’s 7 Kicks, a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you.

As you regular readers know, normally I feature an illustrator every Sunday, but this week has been devoted to some straight-up chillaxin’, as the young ‘uns would say. Or Chillaxin To D Maxin, as the severely hip young ‘uns might say.

So, knowing I’d be at Disney World this week, I just took off altogether and didn’t even get an illustrator lined up for today. My apologies. Instead, you’re being greeted this morning with a photo of me and the girls at Epcot. I try to limit photos of my children at the blog, which are probably only interesting to me and the grandparental units, as I’ve said here before, but I GOTTA have at least one image this morning, don’t I? That’s right. Thanks for agreeing.

This trip was my first Disney visit, or what I now like to call The Land of Sanitized Children’s Lit. I don’t mean to sound as if I’m being snarky about an actual vacation, ’cause I got to ride some coasters and see my girls nearly explode from happiness upon meeting Marie from The Aristocats, which pretty much was their ultimate goal.

Looks like while I was gone, I missed this from The New York Times. Since I blog about picture books and illustration, am I panicking? Nope. I think I’ll keep on keepin’ on. If the NYT is right, it’s all the more reason to keep shining the spotlight on contemporary picture books.

Oh and kicks? It’s late on Saturday as I type this, and we just got home and unpacked, but I’d say, quickly: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Hollywood Studios; visiting the countries of the world at Epcot, which is a nice break from mouse ears (mostly); getting to take a break from work and writing; the actual brewed coffee I’ll have this morning after a week of coffee-from-machines; reading the work-in-progress chapters of my writing partners-in-crime, Betsy and Peter; and the fact that I’m, as you read this, at the Southern Festival of Books to see friends, hear authors, and volunteer. I missed this yesterday but heard it went very well, and I got to see the documentary in advance, which was a treat.

Note: Don’t forget that nominations for The Cybils 2010 are open!

What are YOUR kicks this week?

First of all, y’all, I’m on blog break this week, so I’ll see you on Sunday for your kicks. (That’s the first line of a poem, I think, that someone needs to complete.)

Secondly, I’m happy to announce:

Yes, Nashville! A Vanderbilt professor of Education (whose research focus is children’s lit and who, incidentally, will be part of the panel this Saturday for Steven Withrow’s documentary, so go see and hear!) contacted me with this wonderful idea, and that would be the moment in which I smacked my forehead and proclaimed, “Yes! Why didn’t I think of that earlier?” Brilliant, I say. Brilliant notion.

Many of us not in New York City read with a happy kind of envy about Betsy Bird’s Kidlit Drink Nights up in the Big Apple (you know, like this); well, now middle Tennessee has one. Though I have absolutely no idea how many Tennesseans read my blog, here are the details. Be there, or be square. Or be there and be square. I have a soft spot in my heart for nerds, you know.

Here’s the announcement we’re emailing folks. If you’re a kidlit person in middle Tennessee, this is for you, too: Read the rest of this entry �

Well, I finally followed up on something I promised I’d try to do in my Caldecott-ramblings post, and that would be contact illustrator Sophie Blackall to see if she wanted to share some images and possibly some sketches from her latest illustrated picture book titles, Jacqueline Woodson’s Pecan Pie Baby and Rukhsana Khan’s Big Red Lollipop. In fact, as you all know, I like to feature student illustrators or those brand-spankin’-new to the field on the first Sunday of each month, but I’m breakin’ the rules today, since I promised this a couple weeks ago and can finally deliver.

Read the rest of this entry �